Indian bridge team for Asian Games named, no place for last edition's winners

PUNE: The

Bridge Federation of India

on Saturday picked a six-member team for the upcoming Asian Games in Hangzhou with Debasish Ray as the coach-cum-non-playing captain.

The team includes 2018 Asian Games bronze medallists

Sumit Muukherjee

, Debabrata Mazumdar, Jaggi Sivdasani, Rajeswar Tiwari, Keyzad Anklesaria and

Sandeep Thakral

, the federation said in a statement.

Pranab Bardhan and Shibnath De Sarkar who won the pairs gold in the last Asian Games failed to make the cut this time.

"The players selected this time have been practising quite hard for quite some time. I am sure India would be able to rise to the occasion this time as well," said Ray, who was also the coach-cum-captain in the 2018 Asiad.

The team was picked after a trial held in Pune earlier this week and the same squad will represent the country in the World Bridge Championship slated in Italy next month.

India had won a pairs gold and team bronze in the Indonesia Asian Games in 2018.

Squad: Sumit Mukherjee, Debabrata Mazumdar, Jaggi Sivdasani, Rajeswar Tiwari, Keyzad Anklesaria and Sandeep Thakral.